The 1% Club viewers baffled by bizarre symbol question as fans insist the show has the wrong answer

Fans of The 1% Club were left scratching their heads after one particularly baffling question had viewers struggling to understand how the programme arrived at its answer.

The latest head-scratcher came when host Lee Mack presented contestants with five groups of six symbols and asked them to identify the one that remained in the same order when read from left to right and then from right to left.

It sounded simple enough. In practice, viewers found it anything but.

Viewers couldn’t agree with the answer

Mack asked:

“Which of these groups of six symbols are in the same order whether you read them from left to right or from right to left?”

The question appeared on screen with five possible answers, labelled A to E.

When the correct answer was revealed, the screen showed C. That immediately prompted confusion among viewers who were convinced the answer should have been A.

Several took to X to compare their reasoning and try to work out what they had missed.

One viewer wrote: “I said A and I still think A. I don’t understand how it’s not.”

Another simply pleaded: “Can someone please explain how it’s C?”

A third viewer suggested there could be an issue with how the question was interpreted, writing: “This is a trick question, A or C could be correct depending on the definition of right to left used.”

One person attempted to explain why C was supposedly correct, arguing that the question was about identifying the symbols rather than treating the groups as mirror images.

Their explanation was:

“It’s not about being mirrored; it’s about what symbol is what. So A would be (from L-R): left bracket, right bracket, left bracket etc, but R-L it would be; right bracket, left bracket etc. which is difference. Whereas C is left arrow-right arrow-right arrow etc from both ends!”

For many viewers, that explanation only seemed to make the whole thing more confusing.

Four contestants still managed to crack it

Despite the confusion at home, at least some of the contestants managed to find the correct answer.

Four people eventually made it through the final question and shared a prize of £97,000.

That may have left plenty of viewers feeling rather relieved that they were watching from the sofa rather than standing under the studio lights.

The symbol puzzle was far from the first time The 1% Club has left viewers completely baffled. The ITV quiz regularly produces questions that appear straightforward until contestants and viewers are forced to think about them from an entirely different angle.

Another question left viewers struggling

A previous episode featured another question that proved particularly difficult for people watching at home.

The puzzle asked contestants to identify the next number in this sequence:

1

11

21

1211

111221

312211

?

If you couldn’t immediately see where it was going, you’re certainly not alone.

The answer is 13112221.

The sequence works by describing the numbers in the previous line. The number 312211, for example, is read as one three, one one, two twos and two ones, producing 13112221 as the next line.

It is the kind of question that can seem obvious once the pattern has been explained, but considerably less obvious when you’re staring at the sequence and the clock is ticking.

And then there was another classic brainteaser that left viewers reaching for an answer before realising they had fallen into the trap.

Mack asked:

“A bat and a ball cost £1.10 in total. The bat costs £1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?”

The correct answer is 5p.

It sounds like a simple calculation, but the obvious answer that springs to mind for many people is 10p. If the ball costs 5p, the bat costs £1.05, bringing the total to exactly £1.10.

With questions like these, The 1% Club has a reliable way of making viewers question answers they were certain about just seconds earlier.